UMBC

The UMBC men’s basketball team (10-17, 5-13 America East) snapped an eight-game losing streak and won on “Senior Day”, 68-58, over visiting Hartford (8-19, 4-14). The Retrievers will be the #9 seed in next weekend’s America East Conference Tournament and face #8 seed New Hampshire (9-18, 5-13) at 6:00 p.m. at Binghamton University’s Events Center.

Hartford led, 31-28 at intermission, and scored the first basket of the second half. But the Hawks would score just one point over the next 10 minutes of action, as UMBC outscored the visitors, 18-1 in that span. After Hartford’s Charles Ford tied the game at 34-all on a free throw with 14:52 remaining, Retriever senior guard Rob Gogerty hit a three-pointer from the wing to start a 12-0 UMBC surge. Freshmen guards Brian Hodges and Michael Knight combined to tally the next nine points as UMBC took a 48-36 lead with 8:59 remaining.

The Hawks would get as close as eight points at 56-48 on a pair of David Ruffin free throws with 2:19 to play, but Hodges hit a three-pointer from the left baseline on the next possession and the Retrievers maintained a double digit advantage the rest of the way.

Hodges led all scorers with 14 points, hitting 3 of 7 from behind the arc. He scored 11 of his 14 points in the second half. In his final home game, Gogerty added 13 points and 6 assists and his 129 assists are now the seventh-highest single season mark in school history. UMBC’s other senior, center Andrew Feeley, contributed 8 points (all in the second half) and 5 rebounds after playing just 8 first half minutes due to foul trouble.

UMBC hit 12 of 26 shots in the second half, including 5 of 10 from behind the arc, while the Hawks hit just 9 of 29 (31.0%) in the second frame and 1 of 9 from three-point range. Hartford missed 10 of its first 11 shots in the final 20 minutes. Guards Charles Ford and Brian Glowiak led Hartford with 12 points each.

New Hampshire swept a pair of games from UMBC this season, winning, 60-41 in Baltimore on January 2, and capturing a 73-64 triumph in Durham in February.